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After last year’s very successful Giggin4Good summer showcase, the second Giggin4Good showcase took place on Sunday in the Actor’s Church in Covent Garden, again with a cast of both established and up-and-coming performers. I think the Actor’s Church is the perfect location for concerts and those of us who braved the weather were in for a wonderful evening, all in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Ziggie Sky Ward set the bar very high with her beautiful rendition of Lance Horne’s “Last Day on Earth”. David Brewis’ “Till I Hear You Sing” from Love Never Dies was very impressive and I loved his duet with Joseph Connor (“For Good” from Wicked). Joseph also sang “If I Didn’t Believe in You” from The Last Five Years.

Shaun McCourt

One of the highlights of the evening for me was Shaun McCourt, who sang “Last One Picked” from the musical Whoop-Dee-Do! and “Younger Than Springtime” from South Pacific. In the first song he got to show his excellent comic timing, while the second song highlighted his beautiful voice. He is currently understudying the part of Joseph in the UK tour and I would love to see him play it. A name to remember!

Another highlight was, of course, Rebecca Caine. Her “Somebody, Somewhere” from Happy Fella was simply stunning, as was her Follies duet with Rosie Clarkson. Their voices sounded sublime together.

There were some other great duets from Victoria Hamilton Barritt & Nathan Amzi and Twinnielee Moore & Max Milner. Victoria Hamilton Barritt also sang an amazing “Don’t Rain on My Parade”. I loved Alexia Khadime‘s “Easy as Life” from Aida, it just suited her voice perfectly. Annabel Lloyd‘s Neverland (Scott Alan) was just lovely and so was Rosa O’Reilly‘s “Astonishing” from Little Women.

Sabrina Aloueche

Ross Hunter has an incredible voice and his “Memphis Lives in Me” was superb, as was his duet with Sabrina Aloueche (“High Enough”/Rock of Ages), who also sang a breath-taking “The Honour of His Name”. His fellow Legally Blonde cast member Lincoln Stone sang a wonderful “Honesty”, but his “Anthem” from Chess was even better and a wonderful way to finish the evening.

There were also a couple of songs from two new musicals: My Land’s Shore, written Robert Gould and Christopher Orton, and Roundabout, written by Joe Sterling and Robert Gould.

The music from My Land’s Shore completely blew me away. I especially loved “I Know I Love Him”, which was sung by Kelly-Anne Gower, Sarah Lark and Laura Selwood and of course the rousing “My Land’s Shore/Finale” sung by Jonathan Williams and Kelly-Anne Gower, Sarah Lark, Laura Selwood, Christopher Orton, Gareth Richards, Alexis James and Joe Sterling. The cast recording has just been released and I’d urge you all to buy it. It’s a truly exciting new musical with a compelling story. More info can be found HERE.

The two songs from Roundabout, “Those Eyes”, which was sung by Joe Sterling, and “What We Are Here For”, which was sung by Christopher Orton were lovely too and I can’t wait to hear more about it.

I enjoyed Giggin4Good very much, so a big thank you needs to go to the organisers who put on such a superb concert and I hope they managed to raise a lot of money for GOSH. I’m already looking forward to the next one (whenever that may be).

Les Misérables is based on Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel of the same name and set in early 19th-century France. The plot follows the stories of many characters as they struggle for redemption and revolution, whereby the focus is on Jean Valjean, who tries to turn his life around after his release from prison.

The musical celebrated its 25th Anniversary last year with two concerts in the O2 Arena and a cast of past and present West End and Broadway cast members as well as some ‘names’, such as Matt Lucas and Nick Jonas.

If I had to chose a favourite musical, it would be this one. I love the way the book has been adapted for the stage and how every ensemble member has their own character(s) to play. It’s a timeless and epic story and the music supports it beautifully. Or maybe I should say ‘supported’.

I’ve seen the musical a lot, but this time, for the very first time, I left completely disappointed. I have a very clear idea what the characters should be like (according to the book), so if you are a fan of any of the current cast members you might want to stop reading here!

After a great reception at the 25th Anniversary Concert, Alfie Boe has taken on the role of Jean Valjean again. While he undoubtedly has a great voice, I was disappointed by his performance at the O2 and the Classical Brit Awards, because I felt that he didn’t really act the part and left me totally cold.
I am glad to say that his acting has improved in the meantime, but unfortunately it’s still not great. His Valjean still left me cold and he didn’t manage to capture my attention the way other Valjeans did. For me, he switched between overacting and very big gestures (especially at the beginning during ‘What Have I Done‘ and ‘Who Am I‘) and not acting at all. I always felt that I was watching Alfie Boe singing Valjean’s part, but never really the character himself. This was most obvious during ‘Bring Him Home‘, though vocally it was probably one of the best renditions I’ve ever heard.
All in all, I prefer a more MT sounding voice, which might be less perfect, but belongs to someone who can do the part justice. From the 6 different Valjeans I’ve seen so far, I’d definitely rate 5 of them higher than him, I’m afraid.

I’ve only seen Hadley Fraser in some concerts before and really liked him, but when I heard that he was cast as Javert I was worried that he might be too young to be believable. Unfortunately, he was. I wanted to like him, but he looked, sounded and acted far too young. He lacked the authority, determination, dignity, intelligence, sarcasm and coolness that Javert needs, but was running around frantically instead and shouted a lot. I don’t generally have a problem with young Javerts, Richard Woodford (u/s 2008/09) was younger as well, as was Jeff Nicholson (u/s 2009/10/11) and I found both of them very good, vocally and acting-wise. I didn’t even find Hadley’s voice really suited for Javert and he was completely drowned out by Alfie Boe during the ‘Confrontation‘. He did seem to get better as the show went on though and his ‘Suicide‘ was quite good.

Caroline Sheen is another one who I wanted to like, mainly because I love her album and thought she would be quite good as Fantine. But I ended up not liking her Fantine at all. Vocally she was okay, nothing special, but I found her acting really off putting. She either seemed to overact or just star into space. ‘I Dreamed A Dream‘ was completely underwhelming.

The less said about Matt Lucas the better. He seemed to play it only for laughs and I found his ad-libbing unnecessary, out of place and cheap. Vocally he was nothing special and unfortunately he doesn’t seem to get the character at all.

Katy Secombe as Madame Thénardier was alright, but nothing to write home about. I did enjoy her performance, but she didn’t really add anything new to the character.

I really wanted to like Liam Tamne as Enjolras, because I thought he was great in Departure Lounge and a couple of concerts I have seen him in. His Enjolras, however, lacked any leadership skills and he seemed to be convinced from the very beginning that they would fail. Surprisingly I didn’t find him very strong vocally either and he seemed to struggle a bit with some notes. It was most notable during the ‘Final Battle‘ (‘until the earth IS FREE’). While his death looked awkward and wooden, I hope that this will improve with time. I still think he’s a great performer, just not suited to Enjolras.

I don’t know what to say about the new Eponine, Alexia Khadime. She seemed to try to be a cute, innocent and very young Eponine, but she didn’t pull it off at all. She even seemed to put on a little girl voice at some points, but I struggled to find anything about her Eponine that I liked.

I’m not sure what I should think of Lisa Anne Wood, the new Cosette, either. I really liked her at times, but not so much at others. Vocally I didn’t find her particularly strong during the higher bits. Cosette needs such a strong actress to make the part not totally boring and I’m not sure if she is that yet. She had great chemistry with Craig Mather though and I’m sure her portrayal will grow on me when I see her again.

For me, the ‘saving grace’ of this (principal) cast was Craig Mather as Marius. He was adorable, young, everything Marius should be and has a great voice. I loved his ‘Empty Chairs At Empty Tables‘ and his part of ‘Little Fall of Rain‘. I never liked Gareth Gates’ audible sobbing in this scene, but when Craig did it, it was heartbreaking and totally believable. My only ‘criticism’ is that he wasn’t given a wig and his hair cut looks far too modern for 19th-century France, but that’s a very minor quibble.

It’s not really a principal part, but I enjoyed Adam Linstead‘s Grantaire very much. He was great in the Café ABC scene and I really liked his interaction with Marius before ‘Drink With Me‘ as well as his part in that song. He didn’t play Grantaire, he was Grantaire.

The same is true for Fra Free (Jean Prouvaire), Jay Brice (Lesgles) and Christopher Jacobsen (Courfeyrac/drunk at the wedding), who managed to remind me why I love this musical so much.

Still, I missed all the ad-libbing between the students, they didn’t really seem to have found their own personalities yet. I know it’s early days so that might still come.

There are some small changes in the staging as well. I liked the change in ‘Drink With Me‘ (no interaction with the girls at the beginning), but apart from that I’ll have to stick with ‘If it’s not broken, don’t fix it!’. Fantine’s fight with Bamatabois looked all over the place and the marching in ‘One Day More’ looks odd now.

The same is true for the orchestrations. I didn’t like them when I saw the tour and I still don’t like them now, no matter how often I’m told that they are far superior and less dated. For me, they make the music lose its impact, especially during ‘Lovely Ladies‘ and Javert’s entrance before ‘Fantine’s Arrest‘.

However, the majority of the audience seemed to love it, so my opinion will be rather unpopular, but all in all I think this is the weakest cast I’ve seen. Nevertheless I’m planning to go back to see Jonathan Williams (alternate Valjean) soon and I hope the rest of the cast (mainly the ensemble) will have settled in by then.